


Drama king (you reap what you sow)

by Dona_Laura



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Major Character Injury, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 08:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13655268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dona_Laura/pseuds/Dona_Laura
Summary: One-shot, an alternative sequel to 'Honesty is the best policy'.A darker version, set a year after chapter 6.Let’s find out what would have happened if Sara never answered Reyes’ last email…(art by@seokanorion tumblr)





	Drama king (you reap what you sow)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MellowCorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellowCorn/gifts).



> This one-shot is for my dear and amazingly talented friend MellowCorn/Seokanori, whose pics always inspire me!! I love them so much!!!  
> She gave me the backstory, and the gorgeous art you’ll find in the text is her work as well. You really should check out her blog on tumblr, it’s fantastic (https://seokanori.tumblr.com/)
> 
> She claims she is a drama queen… so I really wanted to give her the drama king of her darkest dreams. 
> 
> Looking for inspiration?  
> Oh, darling what have I done – The White Buffalo (“All my days have turned to darkness / And I believe my heart has turned to stone”)  
> Bang Bang – Nancy Sinatra (“He shot me down / I hit the ground / That awful sound / My baby shot me down”)

“Pathfinder? Are you there?”

Sara never heard such tension in the director’s voice, she can feel it even on the phone.

“I hear you, Tann. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

He ignores the irony in her tone and sighs before answering.

“Ryder, you need to go to Kadara immediately. We have a… situation. Regarding the Collective.”

“Tann…” She shakes her head with annoyance, even if the salarian cannot see her. “Why don’t you ask Pathfinder Avitus? He’s been in charge of Govorkam system for over a year now.”

“Ryder, don’t you think that I would have asked him, if I could? I didn’t want to mention that on the phone, but… I’m sure you heard about the problems caused by the Collective? The kidnappings, the murders? Well, now they have surrounded Ditaeon. We’ve reached a dead-end. They threaten to attack if we don’t surrender and leave the planet immediately. Pathfinder Avitus had to run away after the last attempt of negotiations, which completely failed. They claimed they would kill him and his crew if they didn’t leave.”

“Then ask another Pathfinder to deal with it, or send Kandros and the whole cavalry. I have nothing to do with that, and I surely don’t want to.”

“I still have hopes to resolve this in a peaceful manner, Ryder. Apparently, the Charlatan refuses to speak to anyone but you. He specifically asked for you.”

“Come on! Don’t tell me that we accept demands from thieves and murderers, now? Tann, I won’t–”

“Ryder, this is an order. Turn back now and go to Kadara immediately. We cannot lose this outpost, so I’m counting on you. Tann, out.”

\-----------

She doesn’t want to be here.

She strides through the port, with angry steps that prevent anyone from talking to her. She almost runs to the lift, hurrying her way down to the Slums and out to the Badlands. She knows she’s been followed since the moment she set foot on the ground. But as long as no one talks to her or tries to stop her, she decides to ignore the heavy eyes in her back.

When she crosses the fence, her omnitool rings at an incoming email from an unknown sender. She immediately recognizes the coordinates, and fury gains her. Angry butterflies shake her guts, and she clenches her fists to try to control herself.

At least, she doesn’t need the Nomad guidance system. She knows where she’s going.

And she already knows that it can’t possibly end well.

 

She enters the dark and silent cave, trying not to remember the last time she came here, and quickly moves toward the cavern further ahead. Nothing has changed. The amplified sound of her footsteps on the rocky ground breaks the silence, just like the day she came here with Sloane. Exception made that this time she’s alone, and painfully aware of who is waiting for her.

She finds him exactly where she assumed he would be. He’s waiting in the shadows, his back leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. She doesn’t spot him immediately; she hears him before she sees him. When she stops into the light, a few feet away from him, he suddenly speaks to her.

 

“Pathfinder… finally. I was wondering if you’d stop by.”

She cannot believe what she just heard. How many times had he greeted her with this line? How many stunning smiles had he thrown at her while saying the exact same words?

_He gotta be kidding me… but alright, shady bastard. We both can play this game._

“Tsk tsk… I had forgotten how dramatic you could be. But your lines are getting a little old. I hope you’re better with a gun than with your mouth… I’d hate to think that you’ve gone soft during this last year, Charlatan.”

He chuckles. The sound sends nervous spikes in her stomach.

“The Pathfinder never loses her wit, does she? But you’re not as clever as you think you are… Otherwise you would never have agreed to come here. Not alone.”

He starts walking in circles around her, with slow, predatory steps. His right hand is lingering on his holster, gently stroking the butt of his gun. His gesture silently states the obvious – he’s threatening her. And his eyes are fixed on her. Dark, cold eyes, that she has never seen.

She doesn’t make a move. He seems disappointed to see her lack of reaction.

“You used to be more careful. I really thought that you’d have brought at least one of your precious companions to protect you. Are you not afraid of what I might do to you?”

“Cut the bullshit. I’m not afraid of you, I’ve never been and I surely won’t start now. What do you want, Reyes?”

“Don’t call me that.” Suddenly, there’s an unspeakable savagery in his tone. He hisses between his twisted lips. “Don’t you dare… calling me by my name.”

“So that’s what this is about? The torture, the killings? The outpost? Some silly revenge?”

He shakes his head. “No. This is not a revenge. And it surely ain’t silly. I did what I had to do to make sure that you’d be here, that you’d have no choice to come in person. I’ve been carefully planning this moment for months, you know. This is my way of saying that you and the Initiative can go the fuck away and leave this planet forever. We don’t want any of you here. Never again. The outpost is not yours anymore. It’s mine.”

She feels electric sparks going through her body. The fear, the anger, the resentment – they’re all too palpable. But she sets the feelings aside – she’s desperately seeking control, however close she is to lose it.

Their eyes are locked on each other. Sara knows that she urgently needs to connect to him, in a way or another. Otherwise she could lose more than just her life.

“Come on, you had me coming all the way down here just to tell me that? Maybe you plan on killing me, just like you killed Sloane, right here?” She points to the ground at her feet, in the middle of the cavern. “Or maybe you’d prefer to remember what we did after that?”

She’s not looking at him anymore. She walks right past him, ignoring the shiver down her spine when she hears him tightening the grip on his weapon. She walks right into the darkness of the cave, further in the quaking silence. She hears him hesitantly following her after a few seconds.

She turns to face him, her back on the wall. She notices that he now holds his gun in his hand.

“It happened right here. That’s where we found a way to make peace, not so long ago, remember? You asked me to come, and here I am. So, let’s discuss this. It’s not too late. Let’s find a way to resolve this peacefully. The Initiative will never leave the outpost, and you know it.”

He victoriously looks at her, with a hint of triumph in his grin that somehow reminds her of a wild beast.

“Funny that you still don’t get it… I brought you here because I wanted you to see. What you’ve done. This is on you, Pathfinder. You’re the only one to blame.”

His hand is steady when he slowly points his gun to her head. “I wanted you to know. The Collective has launched a massive attack on Ditaeon as we speak. I gave specific orders that nobody should come out of it alive. I told my men to kill them all, women and children and every fucking living soul. You have already lost your precious outpost. It’s too late for peace, now.”

His face is twisted with pure evil. He’s exulting at his own cruelty, delighting in the shock on her face.

“Then you’d better kill me too, asshole!”

“No. Oh, dear, no.” He’s mocking her, now. “Don’t rob me of the best part of my plan. I don’t want you dead… I want you to suffer. You’re gonna live with that on your conscience for the rest of your life. I know that _this_ is gonna kill you. It’s gonna eat your soul, bit by bit.”

He smiles ferociously. Sara has no time to think; she raises her arms, blue electricity crackling all around her in a furious wave inflaming the air around. For an instant, she cannot help it, and she yells in frustration and anger, wrapped in a bubble of blue energy that she desperately tries to repress.

“I will kill you, Reyes!”, she growls with a barely contained rage. She cannot hold it anymore – a ray of energy runs across the room and hits the wall behind Reyes, missing his head by a few inches.

 

She sees it, then. She catches a short glimpse of hate and despair in his gaze. And fear, too. Time seems to stop for a mere second, stretching in the tense space between them, twisted by the confrontation of their hateful eyes. She sees it, right before it’s too late.

 

Nevertheless – when he shoots her, the sound tears her ears. It tears her heart.

 

She cannot believe it. She falls on her knees, then collapses on the ground when her legs give up under her. She lowers her gaze to her right arm, in shock, incredulously looking at the bloody hole that appeared beneath her shoulder. She feels no pain. The crimson bloom is growing fast, and yet she still doesn’t feel a thing. Only the aftermath of a predictable outcome.

 

 

“You… you shot me!” She’s panting.

“I warned you.” He smirks. “Don’t you ever say my name again. I should have killed you.”

“Fuck you, _Reyes_! I was trying not to hurt you, you fucking idiot! As stupid as it sounds, I don’t want to hurt you!”

 

He hesitates when he hears her words. During a tiny, evanescent moment, she catches on his face a brief peek of who he used to be, of the man she once knew. She sees all of it: hidden secrets and unspoken fears, secret hopes and feared realities. All the things he buried inside, for no one else to see.

It’s like a geyser of tormented feelings flooding over her, a soul bleeding its regrets like pouring rain.

The terrifying darkness leaves her breathless for half a second.

But it all disappears in an instant, vanishing into thin air. His eyes are now closed to her. And she knows it is forever so.

She knows she witnessed the last and frail remains of his humanity. She saw him closing the door, and she has no doubt that he will never open it again, not to her, not to anyone. She suffers for him, for the man that she once thought she could love. And that is now gone.

It’s all her fault. She can see it now. There’s nothing more she could say or do. No looking back.

 

 _So much for bonding times…_ she thinks with bitterness.

 

“I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done.” Her throat is sore, and she swallows hard.

He doesn’t answer, so she gets up, leaving a bloody stain on the ground where she once kissed him. She sighs.

“I guess this is a farewell, then.” Her voice echoes softly on the walls of the cave. She makes a step toward him, but he raises his gun again.

“Go. Now. Before I change my mind and shoot you for good.”

“You know that we will see each other again, right? ... I won’t hesitate, then.”

“Neither will I.”

 

She turns away without a glance back, holding her bloody arm. But she still feels no pain. Only an excruciating regret.

 

As soon as she’s out of the cave, she jumps in the Nomad and calls the Tempest.

“Cora, call Tann immediately. Tell him… we’re at war.”


End file.
